A moment with Chris Thompson

We recently upgraded to the new 5 tuner DirecTV HR34 HD 1080p DVR receiver. It’s definitely an improvement from our old UVerse DVR receiver, which I felt was slow and clumsy. Let’s go over some of the key features in this review and why I say you’ll consider it a step up.

Note
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Cost
We obtained our receiver via a contract with DirecTV. I was shopping at Fry’s in Northern California and signed up at the DirecTV booth in the television section. The agent who helped me was knowledgeable, she had been with DirecTV for several years and could answer all my questions. Supposedly DirecTV just started offering this receiver in our area, so I thought it would be another good review opportunity. I signed a 2 year contract because we needed installation and I know it’s included for free when you sign a contract. Although I had to pay about $120 up front for the newer HR34 receiver, we ended up getting an all inclusive deal for $47 a month for the first year. That’s the middle of the road channel package, HDTV service, the HR34 (which is shared over a coaxial network) and 2 HD receivers. Not bad considering UVerse was charging us over $100 per month and not delivering on a good user experience. The second year does go up to about $60 per month which is still reasonable, then after 2 years we can elect to cancel. After having service for about a month now (which includes a couple months of free HBO, Showtime, etc) we’re pleased with the service, selection, and receivers. I listed the old HR24 receivers below that are available on Amazon, at these prices I’m not sure why you wouldn’t go for the new HR34-700 instead. The more expensive one is the receiver & DVR, the cheaper one is just a receiver only.

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Doing the Accord Air Filter replacement procedure on a 2006 Honda Accord EX is a five minute job. Simply unscrew the four screws as shown in the photo below and gently pull up the air filter housing. You don’t need to disconnect the air snorkel, pulling it up gives you enough clearance to swap out the engine air filter. I recommend the K&N air filter replacement.

Unscrew the air filter housing in the four places shown and then lift the cover up enough to access to the engine air filter element.

Coolant check procedure:
To check your coolant level, while the car is cold and off examine the coolant reservoir as shown in the photo below. There’s a minimum and maximum indicator line, make sure the coolant is in that range. Pretty simple.

The correct coolant level, between minimum and maximum

Use a 50/50 mix of Anti-freeze and distilled water for the proper cooling mixture. It’s OK if the ratio is off slightly like 40/60 or 60/40.

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